Please or to access all these features

Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Eng GCSE grade oddities

220 replies

Sausagesandpeas · 25/08/2023 09:10

DD consistently pulled 9s in her English Language mocks but has come out with a 6 in her results yesterday. She said she’d thought the exams went well. I am requesting copies of the papers to see if there is anything glaringly odd going in. Is it worth asking for a review? It just seems so odd.
Didn't get chance to talk to school staff in the bedlam yesterday.
Thanks

OP posts:
Digimoor · 02/09/2023 21:02

We have the scripts back but still need the question paper and mark scheme from the teacher

Smoothbananagram · 02/09/2023 19:54

We've had 3 English Language reviews back now and all 3 have gone up from a 6 to a 7. AQA.

RosamundAtherton · 02/09/2023 17:26

This reply has been withdrawn

Withdrawn at poster's request

IndiganDop · 02/09/2023 16:04

bendmeoverbackwards · 01/09/2023 21:27

If anyone has submitted a review of marking for AQA English lit or Lang, have you heard back yet?

We have submitted a review for dd, she got a disappointing 6 for both.

She heard, and I’m not sure if this is true, that someone’s paper came back, grade went up and a whole section of the paper hadn’t been marked! Is this possible?

Since markers mark questions not papers, this seems v possible.

SummerChilling · 02/09/2023 15:53

We had weird little stamp ink marks on a couple of questions on biology and physics papers and they are actually in places where we think there’s a query on the mark. Does anyone know what these are? Especially if they are all marked online both AQA

MrsHamlet · 01/09/2023 21:42

vickibee · 01/09/2023 21:41

Can anyone link a copy of the question papers, can’t find online. TIA

They're not available to the public yet.

vickibee · 01/09/2023 21:41

Can anyone link a copy of the question papers, can’t find online. TIA

RosamundAtherton · 01/09/2023 21:37

This reply has been withdrawn

Withdrawn at poster's request

vickibee · 01/09/2023 21:32

It’s the opposite here, my son was expecting a three because he has asd and therefore language and communication difficulties. However, he came home and said the big mark qu on the paper was about bullet trains, he knows lots of random facts . If he’d been asked to write a creative story it would have been a diff outcome. He also passed literature with a four.

bendmeoverbackwards · 01/09/2023 21:27

If anyone has submitted a review of marking for AQA English lit or Lang, have you heard back yet?

We have submitted a review for dd, she got a disappointing 6 for both.

She heard, and I’m not sure if this is true, that someone’s paper came back, grade went up and a whole section of the paper hadn’t been marked! Is this possible?

MrsHamlet · 01/09/2023 18:32

She must have aced the rest of the papers to drop that many and still get an 8!

happyhippiehippo · 01/09/2023 18:30

OK thanks, I'll ask her to check with her teacher. If nothing else to get some feedback to learn from it for the future.

Thanks again!

MrsHamlet · 01/09/2023 18:21

@happyhippiehippo boundaries really shouldn't come into it if something looks wrong. I would ask them to have a look.

I have a few I want to see as the marks awarded feel off. I've not considered proximity to the boundary.

happyhippiehippo · 01/09/2023 18:17

@MrsHamlet Not discussed with school yet as not near the boundary due to missing a lot of marks in that section. Still got an 8 overall so very happy but just curious...thanks for your insight.

MrsHamlet · 01/09/2023 18:14

@happyhippiehippo not a spec I know at all, I'm afraid. But I cannot believe that she'd lose that number of marks just for that.
What have the school said about it?

happyhippiehippo · 01/09/2023 18:12

Should clarify, she forgot to put a title in altogether. Other than that, her vocab, spelling and grammar is usually very good. Two pages, handwriting a bit scruffy and difficult to read in places.

happyhippiehippo · 01/09/2023 18:10

MrsHamlet · 01/09/2023 18:08

There's no specific penalty on my paper for that sort of thing.

Which exam board?

Edexcel iGCSE

MrsHamlet · 01/09/2023 18:08

happyhippiehippo · 01/09/2023 18:04

@MrsHamlet How much would you get penalised if you forget to put a Title and name at the top of a magazine article (instead putting name at the end)?

There's no specific penalty on my paper for that sort of thing.

Which exam board?

happyhippiehippo · 01/09/2023 18:05

happyhippiehippo · 01/09/2023 18:04

@MrsHamlet How much would you get penalised if you forget to put a Title and name at the top of a magazine article (instead putting name at the end)?

DD lost over 50% of the mark in the transactional...

happyhippiehippo · 01/09/2023 18:04

@MrsHamlet How much would you get penalised if you forget to put a Title and name at the top of a magazine article (instead putting name at the end)?

MrsHamlet · 01/09/2023 17:29

It shouldn't but it could.

We're not expected to write huge amounts though - I actually got told this year that I was annotating too much!!!

WaitingforThursday · 01/09/2023 17:19

Can I ask whether handwriting affects marking in your experience MrsHamlet? There were some sections where it was trickier to read and there simply aren't any comments on those (then a low mark). It's legible but takes some work at points. I am wondering whether the marker just skimmed those parts...

WaitingforThursday · 01/09/2023 17:15

MrsHamlet · 01/09/2023 17:10

Which paper, @WaitingforThursday ?

Not sure! She looked at both so we've asked for clarity on that.

MrsHamlet · 01/09/2023 17:10

Which paper, @WaitingforThursday ?

WaitingforThursday · 01/09/2023 17:09

Just coming back to this thread to see whether anyone has had teacher comments or thought further about review? DD got 8/9 through all the mocks but ended up with a 5 in AQA English lit. The head of English at her school has just got back to us to say that she's reviewed the papers and cannot understand the low marks that have been given. She says she rarely advises students to review but thinks this marking is wrong (though of course can't be sure whether the review will find that). Given those comments I think we will send it in to review, though I feel quite sick at the thought it might go the other way.